Tag Archives: Gear

Audio folks can be snobs when it comes to gear. But the reality is, we can’t always have our favorites.

Sometimes, it’s a simple budget issue. At Coast Hills (my church), we didn’t have the budget for Meyer Sound, d&b audiotechnik or L-Acoustics loudspeakers. If I had held out for those brands because they have more cachet, we would not have a new PA at all. The money is just not there.

But the church can afford Bose RoomMatch—and having heard it, and after some considerable evaluation, I’m convinced we haven’t sacrificed that much.

Is RoomMatch as good as some of the others? Maybe not. Will the average person notice a big difference between those two? Probably not. Will the average person notice the upgrade from what we had to RoomMatch? Absolutely. I’ll take that outcome over no change at all.

Be OpenLighting folks can be snobs, too. Some will say, “If it’s not Varilite, it’s not in my rig.” Or Martin. Or High End. Or whatever.

In the past, we’ve rented about six VL2500s for Easter. They’re great fixtures, to be sure. But this year, we rented 18 Elation Platinum Spot 5R Pros. Are they as good of a fixture as the VL2500? Not really. The panning isn’t as smooth, the color mixing isn’t as nice and we had one go flaky on us. However, we made a bigger visual impact with 18 of them than we ever did with the six VLs for the same money.

And you know what? If I were buying moving head fixtures for Coast Hills, I would probably go with Elation. No, they’re not as rugged as a Varilite. But, we can afford more of them, and they would be fine for what we’d need them for.

Use What FitsWhen I say “fits” I mean both budget and application. If you’re at a big church with big budgets and can afford the best gear, go for it. But if you’re at a smaller church with small budgets, don’t feel bad about going with brands with lower cool factor.

To get the most mileage out of gear, regular equipment inspections and Preventative Maintenance (a.k.a., PM) are a must.

All equipment in your inventory should have PM scheduled at least once a year, and more frequently if it goes out the shop door a lot and/or is exposed to harsh environments.

PM comes down to inspecting, testing, cleaning, lubricating and repairing to keep systems in top operating condition.

In addition to annual PM, all gear should be given a quick inspection during setup and tear down at every gig. This includes a visual inspection, placing a hand on equipment to feel operating temperature, tugging on cable ends to see if strain relief is in good shape, etc.

If irregularities are noted, further inspection should be performed and problems addressed. Not paying attention to small problems allows them to build up to big problems that are much more expensive to correct, and they can also result in a failed gig. Here I’ll share some of the PM approaches I regularly utilize with my own gear.

Electrical

PM for electrical gear like processors, amplifiers, and snake boxes always starts with a complete visual examination. Each unit’s case is opened up for visual inspection of the interior. I’m looking for loose or broken wires, unseated connectors, blown fuses, discolored circuit boards, and so on.

Keeping the inside of components this pristine can only help performance and longevity – just be sure to check the manual before removing cases. Image courtesy of QSC Audio. (click to enlarge)

While the case is open, it’s a great opportunity to run a vacuum and clean out all dust and road gunk that has accumulated inside. Sometimes an air compressor, or at least some “canned air,” is used to blow out the dirt. I also remove filters and clean or replace them per the manufacturer’s instructions.

Next up is checking and cleaning signal connections. If the equipment has faders and knobs, it’s time for cleaning and lubrication (again, per the manufacturer’s recommendations).

All electrical pins and connection surfaces are evaluated for corrosion and misalignment, and input and output connectors are given a thorough cleaning with an electronic cleaner such as Deoxit from Caig Labs. If connectors need to be repaired or replaced, this is the time to do it.

With the case still open, it’s a good ideal to double check all power cable connections, and if the unit has a fixed power cord, to make sure the strain relief is in good shape and the cord has no cuts or tears in the outer jacket. I also run my hand down the cable to feel for internal cable damage. If the unit takes batteries, they get a check, and the battery terminals are cleaned.

Before plugging in and powering anything, I make sure all cleaning fluids or solvents have dried. After a quick check to make sure the equipment is operating correctly, each component is sealed back within its case.

Rack-mount gear is a little harder to access without removing from the rack, but I strongly believe that doing maintenance is so important it’s worth the trouble. Note, however, that opening up some gear may void the factory warranty, so please read and follow all manufacturer instructions on maintenance.

To get the most mileage out of gear, regular equipment inspections and Preventative Maintenance (a.k.a., PM) are a must.

All equipment in your inventory should have PM scheduled at least once a year, and more frequently if it goes out the shop door a lot and/or is exposed to harsh environments.

PM comes down to inspecting, testing, cleaning, lubricating and repairing to keep systems in top operating condition.

In addition to annual PM, all gear should be given a quick inspection during setup and tear down at every gig. This includes a visual inspection, placing a hand on equipment to feel operating temperature, tugging on cable ends to see if strain relief is in good shape, etc.

If irregularities are noted, further inspection should be performed and problems addressed. Not paying attention to small problems allows them to build up to big problems that are much more expensive to correct, and they can also result in a failed gig. Here I’ll share some of the PM approaches I regularly utilize with my own gear.

Electrical

PM for electrical gear like processors, amplifiers, and snake boxes always starts with a complete visual examination. Each unit’s case is opened up for visual inspection of the interior. I’m looking for loose or broken wires, unseated connectors, blown fuses, discolored circuit boards, and so on.

Keeping the inside of components this pristine can only help performance and longevity – just be sure to check the manual before removing cases. Image courtesy of QSC Audio. (click to enlarge)

While the case is open, it’s a great opportunity to run a vacuum and clean out all dust and road gunk that has accumulated inside. Sometimes an air compressor, or at least some “canned air,” is used to blow out the dirt. I also remove filters and clean or replace them per the manufacturer’s instructions.

Next up is checking and cleaning signal connections. If the equipment has faders and knobs, it’s time for cleaning and lubrication (again, per the manufacturer’s recommendations).

All electrical pins and connection surfaces are evaluated for corrosion and misalignment, and input and output connectors are given a thorough cleaning with an electronic cleaner such as Deoxit from Caig Labs. If connectors need to be repaired or replaced, this is the time to do it.

With the case still open, it’s a good ideal to double check all power cable connections, and if the unit has a fixed power cord, to make sure the strain relief is in good shape and the cord has no cuts or tears in the outer jacket. I also run my hand down the cable to feel for internal cable damage. If the unit takes batteries, they get a check, and the battery terminals are cleaned.

Before plugging in and powering anything, I make sure all cleaning fluids or solvents have dried. After a quick check to make sure the equipment is operating correctly, each component is sealed back within its case.

Rack-mount gear is a little harder to access without removing from the rack, but I strongly believe that doing maintenance is so important it’s worth the trouble. Note, however, that opening up some gear may void the factory warranty, so please read and follow all manufacturer instructions on maintenance.

It seems like a lot of you enjoy reading what kind of gear I like to use, as evidenced by the views for my top 10 mics, mic preamps, EQs and compressors. I’m going to continue the series with “My Top 10 Most Used Plug-Ins.”

Keep in mind that I use a lot of other plugs by other manufacturers, but these are the ones that I find are used somewhere on almost every mix that I do. Also, I’m a Pro Tools user, so some plugs are PT-centric.

1.Pro Tools 7 Band EQ: I love this plugin because it sounds pretty good, doesn’t eat up any system resources, and has hi- and low-pass filters. Sometimes I’ll just use it for the filters only (like on effects), but I always find a lot of these sprinkled across a mix in many other places.

2.Universal Audio 1176LN: My go-to compressor in most cases. UA has a lot of different variations in their Classic Limiter bundle, but this is the one that works best for me. I find it can just about work on anything if you adjust the attack and release times, but I’ll almost always use it on bass for sure, toms, and probably vocals (although the UA LA-2A works great there as well).

3.PSP Vintage Warmer: Everything I use this on just sounds better, especially the mix bus. I rarely use much of it, but it makes a big difference on the glue of a final mix.

4. Lexicon PCM Native Hall: I love all the Lexicon reverbs, but I find I use the PCM Hall almost all the time, mostly for things that need depth like strings and pads. The Lexicon PCM Plate is a close second, but the Pro Tools D-Verb can be surprisingly good in many places as well.

5.Universal Audio Teletronix LA-3A: Back in the hardware days I always used these on electric or acoustic guitars, since I’ve never found anything better on those instruments. It’s no different with the plug-in. It’s also good on keys.

6.Soundtoys MicroShift: I looked around for a long time for a plug-in with that old Harmonizer sound. The MicroShift is the first plug that I found that really does it (although you can also now get the same sound from the Eventide Ultrachannel). It’s dead easy to use and provides that extra presence or smoothing like nothing else.

7.Universal Audio Precision Limiter: There are other great limiters (like the Waves L series and the Slate Digital FG-X), but this is my favorite for the stereo buss to just take care of those nasty peaks that result in overs. I don’t use much of it (a dB or 2), and it’s very transparent already, so you don’t hear it while it does the job.

8.TT Dynamic Range Meter: This is an excellent plug-in that tells you when you’re squashing the mix too much. It provides precision output metering, plus that great dynamic range meter, and its FREE. Let’s keep the hypercompression out of music. Use this meter.

9. Pro Tools Long Delay: There are other great delay plugs (Soundtoys Echoboy and the PSP 42 and 85 come to mind), but this is the one I reach for all the time. It’s not as versatile as many plug-ins, but it’s fast to set up, and once again, takes up virtually no system resources (which can be important on a large mix). I alter it with a previously mentioned PT 7 Band EQ ahead of it to get the sound I need and keep it out of the way of the vocal.

10.Sample Magic Magic AB: This is one of my new favorites. It provides an instant AB against any audio file. You can load up to nine sources to AB against, and easily match the level between them all for a tight comparison. Plus you can even loop a section if you want. It’s great for making sure your mix is really in the ballpark.

Like I said before, there are a lot of other great plug-ins that I use by a variety of companies, and there are many that I haven’t tried yet, but these are the ones that I use on every single mix that I do.

Bobby Owsinski is an author, producer, music industry veteran and technical consultant who has written numerous books covering all aspects of audio recording. Get The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook here.

BATON ROUGE, LA — PSS Sound, based here, has turned to Harman gear including the company’s JBL Loudspeakers, Crown Amplifiers and Soundcraft Digital Consoles for a variety of recent gigs in Louisiana’s capital city, including the Manship Red Carpet Gala Fundraiser, an annual gala for Our Lady Of the Lake Foundation and the Groovin’ on the Grounds concert at Louisiana State University.

Based in the capital of Louisiana, complete audio systems integrator Premier Production & Sound Services, LLC (PSS) is known for its dedication to providing the best audio designs to a wide variety of venues and events including festivals, concerts, university functions and corporate conferences. A major factor contributing to the company’s success is its use of Harman’s JBL, Crown and Soundcraft equipment, generating integrated solutions that are impressive in quality and consistency.

To deliver a full turnkey audio system at the limited 325-seat Manship Theater for the Manship Red Carpet Gala Fundraiser featuring Grammy-winning Rick Springfield, PSS stacked three JBL VTX V25 line array loudspeakers per side from the ground up, on top of three VTX S28 subwoofers in cardioid configuration and a VTX V25-VT vertical transporter per side, with four VERTEC VT4886 subcompact line array loudspeakers serving as front fills. Also, four VT4886 loudspeakers on top of three VT4883 subcompact subwoofers per side in cardioid configuration served as side fills, supported by two VT4883 subs with four VT4886 for drum fill and 16 SRX712M stage monitors. The entire system was powered by 36 Crown I-Tech 12000HD and nine I-Tech 4x3500HD amplifiers, and mixed with a Soundcraft Vi6 digital console.

Knowing the sound needed to reach three different levels of the theater, Brian Gordon, co-owner and head audio engineer of PSS Sound, said, “Due to building constraints, we were unable to suspend the VTX line arrays, but thanks to the versatility of the VTX series, we were able to get coverage for the entire room with such little gear. After calculating for vertical dispersion, the front fills were enough to cover half of the first level, with the three VTX V25 loudspeakers covering the rest of the house. We are pleased that the ground-stacked configuration gave us the vertical coverage and sound quality that the artist demanded.”

In addition, the Our Lady Of the Lake Foundation held its 29th Annual Gala at the Baton Rouge River Center, hosting a show for the regional Our Lady of the Lake hospital, starring the blue-eyed soul staple, Hall and Oates. PSS came through with eight JBL VTX V25 and four VT4886 downfill enclosures and six S28 subwoofers in a cardioid configuration per side, supported by four VERTEC VT4888 midsize line array loudspeakers and four VT4886 downfill per side for out fill and four VT4886 loudspeakers for front fill. The system was again powered by 36 I-Tech 12000HD and nine I-Tech 4x3500HD amplifiers, while the Soundcraft Vi6 served as the master control console.

“We wanted to run all the signals through the Vi6 before they hit the PA system, to avoid compromising on sound quality and to have control of the Gala function before the band took the stage,” said Bryant, co-owner and Director of Operations. “The cardioid configuration of the JBL loudspeakers was vital for this particular show, because it eliminated the low-end frequencies that the artist was very sensitive to.”

Lastly, the Groovin’ on the Grounds concert at Louisiana State University allowed PSS to showcase its ability to put out a tremendous amount of power through its JBL system, which included 12 VTX V25 loudspeakers per side and nine S28 subwoofers per side, with eight VT4886 loudspeakers as down fills. All units were flown, except for four VT4886 loudspeakers and six SRX728 subwoofers on the ground functioning as front fills.

All 39 Crown I-Tech 12000HD and 15 I-Tech 4x3500HD amplifiers were used to power the system, while the Soundcraft Vi6 console was used for FOH and monitors. For all three shows, JBL HiQnet Performance Manager and HARMAN HiQnet Audio Architect were used to design and adjust the system configurations.

“With Crown amplifiers we have been very happy with the rock solid stability of the I-Tech HDs. The improved filters and V5 presets have made the combination unstoppable and we have been equally impressed with the newer 4x3500HD amplifiers which allow us to greatly diversify amp racks to do many different configurations,” added Bryant.

“When using the software, we started with the V5 presets and moved forward with further tweaks based on the room and venue. This allowed us to be flexible in our design, even though the concert moved from the originally planned outdoor environment into an arena setting,” said Bryant. “The technological leap that the JBL D2 drivers made for high end clarity allowed us to deliver clear sound at these high powered venues, without distortion or feedback.”

“Thanks to our integrated Harman systems, we were able to provide consistent high-quality audio for all three shows,” Bryant concluded. “We have also recently purchased more V25, G28, V20, S25 and F18S loudspeakers to augment and upgrade our existing inventory.”

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The impressive array of lighting and video gear on display at the 2014 finals for the Eurovision Song Contest relied upon grandMA consoles for control. LD Kasper Lange oversaw a control system that included seven grandMA2 full-size and two grandMA2 light consoles, along with 19 MA NPUs and nine MA 8Port Nodes.

Lange stated: “On a system of this size there is really only one control choice today – the grandMA2. The console allows multiple users to access the same show file simultaneously. Also we had the great advantage of MA 3D, both for pre visualisation and for blind editing on site. We were quite surprised to experience a stunning 25 fps with the full rig visualised!”

Programmer Nicolai Gubi Schmidt added: “The synchronized DMX output across a big network was a big benefit. The MA part of the ESC network used 17 x Luminex GigaCore switches. Also the ease of working with timecoded shows on the grandMA2 was great.”

Johnny Sørensen, Timo Kauristo, Thomas Brockmann, Leif Hellberg, Rasmus Bremer and Kristian Sørensen worked as programmers. The Creative Director was Per Zachariassen, the Head of Production was Kamilla Monies, the eye-catching set was designed by Claus Zier and the show’s Creative Director/Content Producer was Nicoline Refsing.

[LITE]COM A/S was the technical supplier with PRG as subcontractor. Gobo & Highlight A/S is the distributor of MA Lighting in Denmark and Sweden.

The final was won by Conchita Wurst from Austria with the song ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’.

LIVE OAK, FL — Design Oasis provided Chauvet Professional lighting and video gear for the 2014 AURA Music & Arts Festival, held here Feb. 14-16. The visual design framed the stage with MVP 12 LED video gear angled at the top and positioned at the side, and also washed the stage in color from COLORado 1-Tri IP wash fixtures.

Set in the pastoral “Spirit of Suwannee Music Park” and featuring 15 different yoga and meditation sessions on topics ranging from breath work and mantras to the flow arts of hoop and poi, the AURA Music & Arts Festival is one of the most mellow events on the music fest calendar. Organizers of the annual gathering, which began in 2010, wanted to convey this uplifting mood on stage. The Design Oasis team helped them do just that, in part by using the MVP 12 LED video panel and COLORado 1-Tri IP LED wash from CHAUVET Professional to frame their performance stage with a lush variety of colors and ethereal images.

“We created a 12’ by 6’ overhanging LED video display at the front of the stage that angled down at a 45 degree angle, plus we used some added MVP 12s on the side,” said Luccas Oliveira, co-owner of Design Oasis, one of south Florida’s biggest 24/7 rental houses. “The MVP 12 panels had the pixel pitch (12.5mm) we needed to show video content that looked clear and crisp even to people in the front section of the audience.”

Using a Resolume media server, Design Oasis programmed a variety of thematic visuals, live text and video content provided by the performing artists – a collection of jamband stars that included Lotus, Papadosio, Conspirator, The Werks and Dopapod, among others. The Tri- color SMD 5050 LEDs of the MVP 12 delivered clear images of the diverse range of video content.

Design Oasis washed the AURA stage with a rainbow of colors from a collection of COLORado 1-Tri IP washes, a LED wash powered by 14 x 3-watt RGB LEDs. Featuring five dimming curves and advanced optics that eliminate color shadows, the rugged fixture has an IP66 rating, making it well suited for outdoor use, an attribute that was important to Design Oasis and its client.

“Anytime you light an outdoor event, especially one that is scheduled to go for three days in Florida, you want to have fixtures with high IP ratings,” said Abbas Ritscher, a partner in Design Oasis. “So aside from selecting the COLORado 1-Tri IP for its color rendering qualities, we valued its IP rating and its ruggedness.”

The MVP Panels were also workhorses; their 13% transparency and IP54 rating also making them ideal for the outdoor festival, according to Oliveira. “You really can’t afford to have inconsistent or unreliable gear at a festival, especially one that’s held in an out-of-the-way spot like Live Oaks (located 80 miles east of Tallahassee),” he said. “Festivals, especially one like AURA, are all about relaxing and letting go, so you really don’t want people stressing out about the lights.”

LOUD Technologies’ Music Gear Group has announced the appointment of Raymond Tee to the position of Mackie APAC Region product specialist.

Based in Malaysia, Tee joins LOUD with eleven years’ experience in the live sound industry and an advanced engineering diploma in electronics.

Prior to LOUD, Tee worked as Operations Manager for one of the largest rental companies in Malaysia, Singesen Technical Production Sdn Bhd. He also held positions with Harman Malaysia as an application engineer, as well as in pro audio distribution.

Tee will report to Rohan Smith, LOUD director of APAC Music Gear sales.

“We are delighted to have Raymond join the LOUD team at this very exciting time for product innovation across the Mackie portfolio, and the corresponding growth in the APAC Region,” remarked Smith. “Raymond will add another dimension to our Mackie distributor support capabilities, and is further evidence of our continued investment in region-wide partnership and market development. This new role will ensure we provide the fastest-possible in-region support to our partners’ training, technical and customer engagement activities, and to fully drive the rollout of some revolutionary Mackie products in the coming months.”

Almost every aspect of evaluating, selecting, operating, and maintaining sound reinforcement gear has been thoughtfully proposed and dissected in these pages over the years. So in this series, we’re instead going to explore topics having to do with the human element in sound reinforcement, and are fortunate to have journeyman mixer Dave Natale to offer some guidance.

Our first topic, viewed through Dave’s personal experience, is transitioning from sound company staff to an independent mix engineer.

After working 20-plus years at Clair Global, Dave worked with a considerable stable of popular entertainers at front of house, including Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Nicks, and Yes. He’d successfully climbed the ladder at Clair, determined the type of artists he preferred, and no longer wished to accept tours without sufficient notice.

Further, his two daughters were growing up quickly; he preferred to be at home more with his kids. He was at a crossroads of his personal and professional lives, and taking the leap to independence would offer him the opportunity for more control over his work as well as a more fulfilling family existence.

Handling The Transition“At one point as an employee I was asked to go out and mix a band with absolutely no advanced warning, and I was home and planning to stay home for a few weeks,” he recalls. “It would be awkward for Clair to tell an account they couldn’t provide the services of one of their employees, and they’d always been very good to me, so I didn’t care want to put them in a bad position.

“Yet I’d been thinking about working for myself for a while and decided to make the leap, respectfully resigned from the company, passed on the tour, and stayed home with my girls. I wanted to have autonomy to control my own schedule, and from that point forward I worked for myself, relying on the good graces of my clients.”

“Transitioning from staff mixer to independent engineer depends primarily on your success working for a sound company,” Dave adds. “You must have a certain amount of accounts before you go independent, and hopefully you keep most or all of them once you go on your own. If you’ve done a good job there’s no reason they shouldn’t use you, and it goes from there. The rest usually comes from word of mouth.

“It’s critical to understands the risks when considering leaving steady employment. There ‘s a very real chance you may not get work when you need it. And when you’re successful in getting work, there’s a higher tax bill, as you’ll be self-employed. Finally, if you’ve relied on health insurance from your employer, you’ll need to make certain that you and your family are covered.”

Dave’s first independent account was Tina Turner, who he’d already mixed for many years. Her management company called him to go out, like any other tour, and he proposed to work for them directly. “As far as they were concerned, since the cost was about the same, there was no issue,” he notes. “Honestly, there didn’t seem to be much of a difference to me except where the check came from.”

Transitioning from staff to independent offers freedom, but it comes with uncertainty. “Switching from the comfort of a regular salary and the familiar surroundings of a sound company to an independent who has to find his own work and interact with personnel and equipment from a variety of sound providers can be very stressful,” he says.

“For example, when I signed on to work with Lenny Kravitz, it was something altogether new for me. They were using Sound Image, already had a monitor engineer who I didn’t know, and I was unfamiliar with the equipment package. Sure, I knew the console, and mics are mics, but the speakers and system processing took a little getting used to.

“Also, I hadn’t worked with the system engineer, so we had to get to know one another. I really learned to trust the system engineers; they know their gear better than anyone.”

ARTS provides a number of wedding production services, ranging from up-lighting and effects lighting to sound reinforcement for ceremonies and receptions, we provide various effects such as bubble machines and confetti cannons, we even offer a package where guests can take photos at your reception with digital cameras and the photos will be displayed in real-time in a slideshow on a projection screen.

Our special effects, event lighting, and projection services include:

Streamer & Confetti Cannons

Haze and Low-Lying Fog

Dance Lighting with Moving Lights

Up-Lighting on the Venue Walls

Projection of Monograms & Gobos

Video Projection on Venue Ceilings & Walls

Video Presentation Projection on Projection Screens

Making your wedding day a memorable one is of prime importance to us. We work with brides and grooms to provide creative solutions to make their wedding unique. Our team has a vast amount of experience in audio, lighting, and video production and can implement that experience in context of your special day.

ARTS provides Audio and Lighting for various events, including weddings. If you’re a DJ or you’re a bride or groom that wants a DJ who doesn’t have the appropriate gear for your event, we’d be excited to work with you. Weddings are soo much fun!

We have PA systems that can provide adequate audio for the largest of ballrooms or outdoor tents – whether you just want to play music off of an iPod or if you have a live band performing. We have lighting gear that can add entertainment value to your reception – from up lighting on the walls or tent, to intelligent and LED fixtures to add eye candy for your guest’s experience. ARTS is also able to provide projection if you have slide shows or videos you would like to present to your guests.

In addition to ARTS’ event production solutions, we can also recommend a subsidiary to our parent company, who would be able to provide artistic and affordable wedding videography services. We also have a network of photographers and DJ’s that we’ve worked with in the past on various wedding events and we could highly recommend them to you as well. So really, we are pretty much able to offer the package deal when it comes to event production for your event.

Driving Miss Daisy takes place in the deep South starting in 1948, just prior to the civil rights movement. Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Wertham, a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish widow of 72 is informed by her son, Boolie, that henceforth she must rely on the services of a chauffeur. The person he hires for the job is a thoughtful, unemployed black man, Hoke, whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn, is not impressed with his employer’s patronizing tone and, he believes, her latent prejudice. But, in a series of scenes spanning twenty-five years, the two, despite their mutual differences, grow ever closer to, and more dependent on each other until, eventually, they become almost a couple. Both characters evolve and grow ever closer until, in the end, they realize that they have more in common than they ever believed possible–and that times and circumstances would ever allow them to publicly admit.

This production will benefit The Hilliard Civic and Cultural Arts Center. Join us for pre-show appetizers, a wonderful performance starring Linda Dorff, and a meet and greet following the show. A cash bar will be open 30 minutes prior to the performance as well as during the meet and greet.

Today a few of us visited R&M Materials Handling, the manufacturer of Stagemaker Concert Hoists, in Springfield, Ohio. A buddy who works for another production company, that recently purchased a couple dozen Stagemakers, hooked us up with a factory tour.

Stagemaker concert hoists are designed to handle stage and theatrical equipment and enable the safe and accurate positioning of speakers, lighting systems, stage sets, and sceneries. Its low weight makes it ideal for touring events. Its compact size permits it to fit inside truss structures. Its quietness makes it ideal for operation during performances, even in theaters.

There’s so many advantages with Stagemaker motors: compact design for better space utilization on stage in trusses and on the truck, it’s quiet operation of less than 75dB allows it to be used during performances, 5-pocket load wheel (six on SM16) provides exceptionally smooth operation and reduced chain wear, its increased safety with combined torque limiting device/brake, its hoist housing is made of injection-cast aluminum which makes it really light, it uses black lifting chain, it ejects chain out the side to make it easier to invert the motor, and it even has ergonomic handles for easy transportation. There’s not much they’ve missed on this one, except for maybe being able to make me a sandwich

ARTS isn’t in the market for hoists yet, but when the time does come, we’re pretty positive that we’ll be going with Stagemaker.

A common application of LED fixtures is for stage eye-candy. Many LED fixtures that are actually focused so that the audience can seem them well, instead of them actually being used to light the performer(s). Lighting Designers end up using a bunch of smaller LED fixtures, moving and fixed, to create entertaining lighting effects that are programmed to illuminate to the music.

In a constant effort to utilize the latest in technology and to continually be upgrading and expanding our inventory, ARTS has recently purchased a number of smaller LED fixtures. We can use these new fixtures for a number of applications – they take up less floor space if used from the stage floor, more can fit side-by-side on a truss rig, etc. These fixtures can be used in a concert, theatrical, wedding reception, and many more settings.

It’s important to have a quality PA system in a gymnasium. Why? Because you want the spectators to be able to clearly hear the audio it’s producing, but you don’t want that audio to be so loud that it’s annoying. Additionally, more often, entertainment is being provided during halftime, timeouts, etc. Furthermore, even before the game, the teams have hours of practice each day, and like to be able to jam to energetic music to help them keep up their pace during practice. These each require high fidelity that isn’t found in your parent’s old-school high school gymnasiums.

Modern gymnasium audio systems make use of what’s known as the distributed sound system concept. This basically means that instead of having one or several speakers originating sound from one location, you spread out the speakers throughout the space, making them closer to the people who are hearing them. Once their closer to the people listening, the sound pressure level doesn’t need to be as high. The sound is more direct and can be a lower level. The reason for this is because of physics and the way sound propagates through the air. A basic rule of thumb is that when distance doubles, sound pressure drops 6db. So the further away the speaker, the louder it has to be to reach the same location. We take high quality speakers, map out their best placement in CAD, and install them where they are most effective for listening. No more cluster of horns in the middle of the gym ceiling that’s a hundred feet away from the farthest person. Now we use multiple speakers throughout a gymnasium, closer to the audience.

Another difference in modern gymnasium audio systems is the quality of the sound being reproduced. It used to be that the only audio pushed through a gym PA was simply general announcements from a microphone. Now, facility staff want to play music and sometimes audio from video through their PA system. The four horns of the past won’t cut it. You need something with higher fidelity, more range, say, an actual speaker. We utilize the highest quality gear for such an application. Three-way speakers, beefy power amplifiers, signal processors to manage equalization and delay, etc. These can be some high tech systems when you start to add in the number of input sources that need to be auto mixed, multiple zones of audio, remote power on and off, etc.

ARTS would be happy to work with you on improving the quality of your gymnasium audio system, please don’t hesitate to give us a call.

This past weekend The Hilliard Arts Council successfully produced their annual summer community musical, this year the musical was Les Miserables. It was the first licensed community production of the musical to take the stage in Central Ohio since the licensing became available and since the film took the screen. The performances took place at Hilliard Darby High School on July 12, 13, and 14.

Several weeks earlier, the Arts Council discovered that the venue, where they had decided to host this year’s summer musical, had some serious issues with their house PA. This was problematic because the Arts Council relies on venue house PA’s when they produce performances. ARTS Owner, Robert Vance, looked into the issues that were taking place and diagnosed that three out of four house PA horns were completely blown and the fourth was significantly damaged. The school district took steps to address the issue and replaced components in all four horns.

Once the repair was complete, the Arts Council was hopeful that all of their PA issues were resolved. Unfortunately, as soon as the system was powered back up, the same issues arose. Turns out, all the horns were blown again, now only days away from the first dress rehearsal.

Once again, Robert looked into the problem. But this time knowing that it wasn’t a high school student accidentally playing music too loud that blew the horns, Robert wondered why the horns blew again. In looking into the configuration of the signal processor in the system, Robert realized that the crossover was set incorrectly. Full range was being sent to the horns. This time, when the district had their chosen contractor come out again to replace components in the horns, based on Robert’s diagnosis, the district knew to ask about the crossover settings and make sure that it was configured correctly before the vendor left the job site.

At this point, however, it was too late to use the house PA. Unfortunately, the system was not repaired in time for the musical. This is where ARTS came to the rescue. We provided a complete house PA for the production – front of house mix, monitor and orchestra sub mixes, compressor/limiters for wireless vocal microphones, power amplifiers and a main house PA with front-fill speakers, vocal and instrumental microphones, etc. The whole shebang.

ARTS Production Services has just acquired some new-to-us audio equipment. Another local vendor is in the process of upgrading their gear and, in an effort to continually be expanding our inventory of gear, we seized the opportunity to strike a deal and relieve them of some of their inventory.

ARTS will now be able to provide audio production services for much larger events in larger venues – auditoriums, main stages at fairs and festivals, and more! We continue to grow our inventory of gear that is available to go out on jobs with us in an effort to both grow our company and lower cost for our customers.

If you’re interested in ARTS live sound reinforcement production services, please contact us today!

ARTS worked with another local consulting company to complete an installation at a local private school. The installation included a four zone, three room, audio system. The areas included the school’s commons and a multipurpose great room.

The system included Furman power conditioning, Rane multi-zone routing hardware and audio mixing, Crown power amplifiers with built in signal processing, and EV speakers. It allowed for keyed remote turn on and off of the system, control of the zones from multiple locations, integration of existing audio input locations and sources, integration with an existing audiovisual projection system, and equalization in the imperfect school commons environment.

ARTS provides live event production, but we also provide lighting, audio, video, and audiovisual consulting, design, and installation services. Sometimes we work with other companies as a subcontractor, but often times we work directly with the end-use to ensure a quality installation that meets all of the users needs.